^ jFeSjj ®!)ous|jts for 5Lent 



fm Cf)ous!)t55 for ient 



GATHERED FROM THE WRITINGS 

OF yo.y^^^O''^ 

The Rev. WILLIAM F. MORGAN, D.D. 

Late Rector of St. Thomases Church, New York 

i MIV 21 jr<5p' J/ 

NEW YORK 
E. P. BUTTON AND COMPANY 

31 West Twenty -Third Street 
1892 



-p' % 



Copyright, i8gi. 
By E. p. Dutton and Company. 



Tfje Library 
OF Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Ontberstts ?Prcg» : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 






TO 



T/iose in the Parish of St, Thomas who cherish the memory 

of him who for thirty-one years ministered to 

them as Pastor and Friend^ 

W^zu Selections from ftts 3Lmt Sermong, 

Are affectionately dedicated 'by his daughter^ 

Annie Rutherford Morgan Dahlgren. 



Deep teachings from the Word he held so dear, 
Things new and old in that great treasure found, 
A valiant cry, a witness strong and clear, 
A trumpet with no weak, uncertain sound. 
These shall not die but live, his last bequest 
To that beloved church whose servant is at rest. 

F. R. H. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



And when He had sent the multitudes away He 
went up into a mountain to pray, — St. Matthew 
xiv. 23. 

'X'HE present age, these passing days, how 
full they are of intense and unwhole- 
some pressure ! It is a period of overwrought 
and overcrowded activity in every sphere 
of effort connected with secular and tem- 
poral interests. And how is it with us who 
profess to be Christians ; are we too " driven 
with the wind and tossed,'* and under the 
lash and spur of this world's perplexities? 
If so, we need to use this holy season begun 



8 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

to-day as it should be used, and sending 
from our hearts the multitude of pressing, 
sordid cares which seek to hold it back, 
come up to the mountain of prayer in re- 
sponse to the Church's call; for if our 
Divine Lord needed and sought a time and 
place to pray, apart from the distractions 
which surrounded him, how much more do 
we, engrossed as we are by the *' lust of 
other things *' and lured on by the world's 
promises and example ! How hard it is for 
us to come even to God's house ; how diffi- 
cult to realize its influence or feel the im- 
pression of its sanctity as we ought ! What 
if He who searches the heart were to write 
upon the wall the thoughts of each professed 
worshipper in His temple, — would they not 
be thoughts of business, of dress, of- pleas- 
ures past or in anticipation? Ah, if we 
were tending heavenward, if our treasures 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 9 

were really there, then God's house would 
indeed be our mountain of prayer, high 
above '^ earth's weary noises," and the bands 
of worldliness which have been gathering 
about us during the past months would be 
loosened and our souls free for the love and 
service of Him who says to each one of us, 
" Can ye not watch with me one hour? '* 



lO A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



THURSDAY. 

They took counsel how they might entangle Him in 
His talk, — St. Matthew xxii. 15. 

T^HE sagacity of the Pharisees estimated 
the importance of employing this fruit- 
ful source of betrayal and self-destruction. 
They knew talk to be a traitor ; and had the 
Son of man been subject as we are to this 
human weakness He would have fallen into 
the snare so subtly laid. Ah, this enemy 
" talk/' which in every circle, in every 
community, is forever leading some one of 
us into folly or falsehood, and which en- 
dangers alike the safety and reputation of 
him who indulges in it and of him who is 
its object, leading almost invariably either 
to self regret or to another's injury ! Would 
that we might imitate the calm dignity with 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. II 

which our Saviour met this temptation, and 
that speech might become upon our lips the 
champion for right against wrong, for justice 
against injustice, for peace and good will 
against ** envy, hatred, and malice, and all 
uncharitableness/' 



12 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 



FRIDAY. 

And Jesus stood and asked him sayings What 
wilt thou that I should do mito thee? — St. Luke 
xviii. 41. 

JESUS stood. The crowd attending Him 
were weary, impatient, almost exasper- 
ated at the delay; but the cry of human 
sorrow fell upon the Saviour's ear, and He 
could not proceed without responding to its 
appeal. There is no mystery of the God- 
head here to bewilder, no distance to divide 
Christ from His people. He stands ready 
to be a Healer, a Comforter. A thronging 
multitude surrounded Him. Scribes and 
Pharisees, as well as disciples, sought places 
near His side, not because they loved Him, 
but from the desire (which governs too many 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 13 

of His followers in this our day) to hear 
some startling word, something to excite 
comment and criticism. 

The eminent of the earth, the wealthy, the 
curious, crowd around Jesus of Nazareth 
to-day as they did " when He walked in 
Galilee ; " but He passes on now, as then, in 
the calm majesty of a God until the voice 
of need and helplessness is heard, until we 
blind men sitting by the wayside of life call 
as Bartimeus did for mercy and deliverance ; 
and then He stands by our side, ready to 
give light, healing, and peace to our dark 
and troubled souls. This is Christianity, — 
reliance upon Christ. It may be more than 
this, as it scatters its blessings over the world, 
as it sweetens home and society ; but it can 
never be without this simple, absolute trust 
in Jesus. And every earnest soul which in 
sincere and honest longing to see aright 



14 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

presses through the crowd of this world's 
hindrances to the feet of the Master shall 
hear in answer to its cry for help, ** Go in 
peace ; thy faith hath made thee whole." 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 15 



SATURDAY. 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
hearty and thy neighbor as thyself, — St. Luke x. 27. 

T^HE faith which we profess during these 
quiet days of especial devotion to reli- 
gious duties should fit us for every good 
work which may await us through the year 
to come. We may not feel a month or two 
hence, perhaps, a hundredth part of the 
honest, earnest heart-desire we are conscious 
of to-day to serve the Master whom we 
follow on the road to Calvary; but our obli- 
gations to our dear Lord will be the same 
when Lent is over ; our duty to our fellow-men 
will remain. The demands made upon us, 
for instance, by human helplessness in one 
form or another — by the very young or the 
very old, the sick, the feeble-minded, the 



1 6 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

erring — will remain, and must be met in 
a spirit of tender mercy, however irksome 
they may prove, if our Saviour's example 
of patience and self-sacrifice has made any 
real impression upon us. It is He who sur- 
rounds us wdth objects which are to cling to 
us in daily dependence. He binds them to 
us with sacred ties, He gives them the right 
to look to us ; and in all this He places us 
in a school of discipline, and says, *^ Inas- 
much as ye do for these, my brethren, ye do 
it unto me.'* Here our sympathy is to be 
quickened, our generosity stimulated, our 
characters softened and strengthened. The 
experiences we meet at home or abroad, in 
household or hospital, are not more in con- 
flict with ease-loving human nature to-day 
than they have ever been in a world where 
the taint of selfishness has always been upon 
the soul of ,man; and the Apostle who urged 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. IJ 

his converts not to be weary in well-doing 
knew how wearisome duty to our neighbor 
might become, especially when, as is so often 
the case, no word of appreciation or token 
of gratitude comes to reward the duty done. 
How impatient we become, for instance, of 
the perpetual applications made by penury 
and want upon our time and thought and 
purse, of the appeals made by the idle and 
thriftless, and which lead us to hasty resolves 
which, if carried out, would lock up the 
heart, and seal the springs of benevolence 
and pity ! Ah, we must remember that 
poverty is an ordinance of God, belonging 
not exclusively to one class, as we are prone 
to think, but to all classes in one form or 
another. It will never cease in this world ; 
and we must meet it in each other, whether 
it is represented by lack of money, lack of 
health, or even lack of heart, as members of 



1 8 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 

one family meet a trial which touches all, 
loyally and faithfully doing our best, how- 
ever vexatious and thankless the task, re- 
membering that divine charity never faileth, 
and that whether duty meets with its reward 
in this world or not, it is promised in the 
world to come to those who recognize their 
Lord through the veil of earthly weakness, 
which gives to every form of human need 
a sacred claim upon our help and power 
to comfort. 



fit^t ^unt»ap in Stent 

And David said to Abigail^ Blessed be thy advice^ 
and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day f7^ofn 
avengiiig 7nyself with mine own hand. — i Samuel 
XXV. 32, 33. 

T IKE certain noiseless and disregarded 
agencies in the universe whose influ- 
ences are mighty, even so are the noble souls 
who prevent sin, who hold evil in check 
before it reaches outward, desolating action. 
But these peace-bringing messengers too 
generally speak in vain; for though like 
Abigail they cross our path with interceding 
voices, how few there are who like David 
pause to acknowledge the mercy of such 
restraints ! The current of bitter and un- 
governable prejudice rolls on, and drowns 
the sound of advice and pleading; and we 



20 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

thrust impatiently aside the arm laid upon 
our own. I know of no spirit which is so 
fatally absent from the world and so mani- 
festly declining among Christians as this 
which arrested David on his vindictive 
career; and yet who does not feel that to 
prevent passionate designs from taking their 
course by gentle explanations and courteous 
remonstrance is the work of an angel? 
What might not be accomplished for the 
quietness and harmony of every family and 
community in the land, if this were the pre- 
dominating grace of Christianity? But, alas ! 
is it not too true that when the spirit of 
malice is aroused, or when by some mis- 
understanding of a social nature coldness 
and aversion are likely to separate friends, 
how many of us are inclined rather to widen 
the breach than to close it, making it the 
theme of endless comment and conversation, 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 21 

aggravating the difficulty tenfold by carrying 
it from house to house, and giving publicity 
and therefore permanence to a feud which, 
if met by a reconciling spirit, might soon 
have expired? Oh, for that influence which 
extinguishes the spark of enmity before it 
kindles into flame ! Pray for it, my friends, 
and in the light of this ancient example be 
more active in preventing sin, more tender 
of character, less willing to judge harshly; 
for the time will come to every one of us 
when each word fitly spoken to restrain evil 
desires or wrong intentions shall give us joy 
at the last, and bring to our ears the grateful 
benediction, *^ Blessed be thou, and blessed 
be thy advice." 



22 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



MONDAY. 

As much as lieth in you live peaceably with all 
7ne7u — Romans xii. i8. 

** A S much as lieth in you/' Ah, St. Paul 
knew how hard it was to *' live peace- 
ably with all men," and when he wrote these 
words he was thinking especially of the 
differences which arise between men of dif- 
ferent minds, temperaments, and education in 
connection with religious questions, wherein 
though each one may be earnest, sincere, and 
zealous, old prejudices, narrow views, un- 
worthy motives keep them at variance and in 
a condition of perpetual strife, when a little 
charity, a more frequent recognition of the 
right of private opinion, would silence con- 
troversy and prevent dissension. Absolute 
unity of mind and aim cannot be looked for 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 23 

in this world. The varying influences which 
give tone and complexion to the character 
make it vain to expect that every intellect 
shall apprehend or every heart respond in 
unison, or that all men shall read the same 
language in the same light. But while we 
may and must be loyal to the standard of our 
individual belief, and contend earnestly for 
the truth as it is revealed to us, we are not to 
use the weapons of this world in its defence, 
not to descend to raillery or sarcasm, not to 
put on party badges or ' magnify innocent 
trifles, but rather bear and forbear and ** fol- 
low peace with all men." 



24 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



TUESDAY. 

Take heed to yourselves lest your heart be over- 
charged with the cares of, this life. — St. Luke 
xxi. 34. 

PXCESSIVE and burdening care is but 
another name for unbelief. Occupation 
is not necessarily care ; diligence is not 
necessarily care. Both are essential to happi- 
ness and success ; but in these days more 
than in those of any other age or country 
there is a brooding anxiety on the part of 
rich and poor, old and young alike, which is 
absolutely sinful and a mark of practical infi- 
delity. The idea of calmness and trustful- 
ness in connection with human pursuits is 
regarded as almost impossible. Care has 
become a custom. It is counted a virtue, a 
necessity, as if the inevitable portion of the 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 25 

eminent and successful man was to go 
through hfe groaning beneath a mountain 
load of hopeless care, as if God had con- 
demned every child of His love to wearing, 
miserable ** thought for the morrow." Ah, 
no, there may be peace within to lighten the 
burden without if we will only seek it. It is 
only because we choose to be left alone with 
our cares that our Saviour leaves us ; and this 
is not a sentimental statement, but a practical 
fact, based upon the best experience. From 
the moment we cast our care upon Him He 
relieves us of its weight, but not until then ; 
and our freedom from harassing, irritating 
anxiety is conditioned only upon our belief 
in His power, and our trust in His abiding 
love. 



26 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



WEDNESDAY. 

And he gave the77i their hearfs desire, but sent 
leajtness withal into their souL — Psalm cvi. 15. 

TF we estimate ruin by its extent rather 
than by the shock and tumult which may 
attend it there is a ministry of vengeance 
more appalhng than the earthquake, the 
pestilence, the famine, — it is the ministry 
of daily blessings, of answered prayers, of 
gratified desires. In the light of all history, 
all personal experience, more evil has over- 
taken men through the channel of prosperity 
than by all the abrupt and direful acts of God 
combined, — a mode of retribution noiseless, 
gradual, unobserved, but charged with tre- 
mendous power. What else can explain the 
contradictions of life around as seen in forms 
of splendid misery, or of intellectual restless- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 2/ 

ness? What else can account for the fact 
that the '' abundance of the rich will not 
suffer him to sleep," that the achievements of 
the ambitious man haunt him with remorse, 
that the drapery of fashion hides a heart ach- 
ing to its core with envy and disappointment? 
And yet this condition is not due to the 
direct interference of God. He does not 
send unhappiness into the soul by especial 
decree. He only withdraws opposition to 
the unsanctified wish, which in its very fulfil- 
ment is unfulfilled. Ah, if we would find 
satisfaction in our blessings, in the granted 
wishes which are "new every morning," let us 
consecrate them to the service of Him who 
alone can " satisfy the longing soul," and who 
*' filleth the hungry soul with goodness/' 



28 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



THURSDAY. 

Lovest thoit 77ie 7nore than these f — St. John 
xxi. 17. 

TN addressing this significant inquiry to 
Simon Peter, our Lord added an endur- 
ing test of discipleship, the measure of the 
divine claim upon ourselves. '' More than 
these?'* "more than these?" — and if with 
the fisherman of Galilee it was a question 
between loyalty to his Master, or to his nets 
and boats and homely toil, so with us it is a 
question betw^een some idol, some interest, 
and the love of God. He may be said to 
enter your dwellings and surveying your 
household treasures, those to which you 
cling with a jealous, trembling affection, ask 
to be loved ^' more than these " and in all 
your domestic relationships to be considered 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 29 

worthy of your greatest sacrifices, your most 
earnest devotion. Or if he enters your 
sphere of business you may hear His ques- 
tion, '' more than these? " above the deafen- 
ing uproar of the street, wherever plans are 
laid and gains sought. Your devotion to 
business may be needed, your incomes may 
only be proportioned to your requirements. 
He counsels not slackness, or sloth; but let 
no earthly undertaking, or ambitious aim, or 
abounding success usurp that first place 
which belongs to Him. Look to Him as you 
labor, look to Him as you prosper, ere the 
time come when opportunity to say, '' Yea, 
Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee," is 
forever lost. 



30 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



FRIDAY. 

Let every man be slow to speak, slow to wrath. — 
St. James i. 19. 

'T'HE reality of our hold upon God, our 
actual trust in Him, is to be disclosed in 
the midst of provocations and perplexities 
which meet us every day. We may be calm 
and tranquil when the fierce storm is raging, 
because we must then depend upon a Higher 
Power. We may present a heroic front when 
deadly sorrow is pressing, but can we meet 
the trifles, or as Hannah More calls them, the 
" pin scratches '' of each day with a strong 
and unagitated heart? Can we bear the little 
disappointments, the transient mortification, 
the exasperating word with the self-control 
we manifest in great emergencies? If not, 
our faith is unreal and empty. The true dis- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 31 

ciple of Christ must be '* slow to speak, slow 
to wrath/' when tempted to utter bitter, and 
perhaps never to be forgotten words, forgiv- 
ing when others are bent upon revenge, 
standing in his lot patiently and bravely to 
the end. 



32 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



SATURDAY. 

Be followers of those who through faith and 
patience iriherit the promises, — Hebrews vi. 12. 

T^O be followers of that ''noble army of 
martyrs " who in the olden time suffered 
and died for Christ's sake does not involve 
for us what they endured of persecutions, 
violence, or death, but it does involve trials 
and sacrifices which make every true Chris- 
tian, man and woman, a Christian martyr. 

Assaults from the powers of darkness meet 
and seek to overthrow us every hour. The 
frowns, the smiles, the promises, the threats 
of the world around us, our dress, our food, 
our associates, our social customs, our diver- 
sions try our steadfastness from day to day. 
Then, too, we have not only active and re- 
lentless enemies without, but traitors within, 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 33 

and too often it may be said that ** a man's 
foes are those of his own household/' And 
it is just here that we are to recognize the 
field of modern martyrdom. Here is our 
daily conflict with foes as deadly as if they 
were hurling stones from their uplifted hands 
to bruise and mutilate our bodies, and the 
proof of a martyr-spirit consists in our 
solemn determination '* to beat down Satan 
under our feet; " for the disciple of Christ 
who does this manfully, and when the pres- 
sure to yield is strong and the temptation to 
compromise if not wholly to surrender almost 
irresistible, is as worthy of the martyr's 
crown as if he had contended with wild 
beasts or had faced, like Saint Stephen, an 
infuriated crowd. 



^econb ^unt^ap in %mu 

They thought scorn of that pleasant land, and mur- 
mured in their tents, — Psalm cvi. 25. 
Forget not all his benefits, — Psalm ciii. 2. 

^l/E think and speak much of the sorrows 
of hfe, but are very prone to forget 
its blessings. We observe the clouds in the 
sky, but seldom consider the sunshine which 
lightens our daily path. This is an ancient 
infirmity, a fault of our race through all 
time, and at this season especially recalled 
to us by the Old Testament narrative con- 
tained in our daily lessons. God's goodness 
to the Israelites, you will remember, had 
been extraordinary, and in most marvellous 
forms. He led them forth from the house 
of bondage; He opened a path for them 



36 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

through the sea, shielded them from their 
enemies and guided them on their way. 
Now in view of all this a strange and humili- 
ating evidence of the ingratitude of the 
human heart is furnished us if we glance at 
the headings of two or three chapters which 
recount the movements of these people after 
their deliverance. The song of Moses, that 
glorious song of praise, is instantly succeeded 
by the statement that the people murmured. 
Why? Because they had reached a stream 
of water which proved to be disagreeable to 
their taste. God by a miracle remedies the 
evil, and they quaff the sweet water to their 
heart's content. They proceed a little far- 
ther on their journey and again we meet the 
same record, ''the people murmured/' Why? 
Ah, there is a lack of provision, — they want 
breads By another miracle God rains down 
bread upon them, the ground is covered. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 37 

Turn to the next chapter. '' The people 
murmured ; '' nay, they are ready to stone 
their leader, so that he is crying to the Lord 
for help. Why? Ah, the water has failed 
again and forgetful of all past mercies, unwil- 
ling to wait, they murmur until God opens 
the rock and the cool stream is rippling at 
their feet. And this is the record from first 
to last; **the people murmur." Now, while 
not prepared to assert that such ingratitude 
is universal, we must admit that while the 
evils of life are too generally magnified, its 
benefits are overlooked, or regarded as ours 
by right. The spirit of discontent is stronger 
by a thousand fold than the spirit of thanks- 
giving', and we all need to be reminded of our 
present blessings. It may be thought that 
such a subject is hardly in keeping with the 
season. The impression is no doubt fastened 
upon the general mind that gloom alone 



38 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

befits the period of the Lenten fast, and that 
we can best discharge our duty by a sombre 
and melancholy view of everything around 
us. This is an error; our blessings have not 
diminished because this season has returned. 
The sun is not eclipsed, the bounty of nature 
is not withheld, the joys of home are not 
extinguished, because we are summoned by 
the church to pray and repent. Still it may 
be said that during this Holy season we are 
expected to follow our blessed Lord in His 
trials and to sit beneath the shadow of His 
cross. True ! But while we sympathize with 
His sufferings, and resolve never to wound 
Him by desertion or betrayal, to bear our 
cross for Him as He bore His cross for us, 
should not our hearts be full of grateful 
praise for all that His suffering, His cross, 
have purchased for us? Ah, no: gloom is 
not the temper for a Christian ; — and the 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 39 

season cannot come, neither the day nor the 
hour, when we have not occasion to be 
thankful. The Song of the Three Holy Chil- 
dren, which we read at this season, sung in 
the midst of the fire, called upon all the 
works of the Lord '* to praise Him and 
magnify Him forever." And even in the fur- 
nace of affliction, prepared in wisdom for 
some of us, we too may look abroad upon 
this fair world and thank God that, though 
trials are great, His mercy and goodness are 
greater. Our daily and hourly blessings 
should inspire us through these Lenten days 
to new devotion by their very contrast with 
our Saviour's want and sorrow and agony, 
and soften our hearts into new loyalty to 
Him who was content to suffer that we might 
rejoice. 



40 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

MONDAY. 

That ye may be able to stand. — Ephesians vi. ii. 

/CHRISTIANS — at least, those who pro- 
fess to call themselves such — are 
often content to apologize for great faults 
of character, without any effort for their 
removal. With one it is an hereditary vice; 
with another, a constitutional infirmity. And 
so ill-temper, intemperance, greed of gain go 
on unchecked from year to year, while with 
the eye of a fatalist the man looks back to 
the poisoned root, and regards himself as 
unaccountable and impotent; and his friends 
whisper, *'It is a family failing, poor fellow; 
there is no help for him," as if there were no 
help in God, no help in Christ. 

My friends, this is not true. No man is 
helplessly linked to sin. He is not irre- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 41 

trievably bound to the sins of his parents 
and ancestors ; and though they be as much 
a part of him as his right eye, they maj^ be 
plucked out by steady, manly, daily self- 
control and reliance on God's never-failing 
aid. For a time it may be a hand-to- 
hand struggle, but only like that a soldier 
is ready to endure, when he fights against 
almost hopeless odds, to gain at length a 
place of safety where he may mount the wall 
and plant the standard, that other fighters 
down below may take courage by his victory. 



42 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



TUESDAY. 

And ye brought that ivhich was torn, and the lame 
and the sick : should I accept this of your hand f saith 
the Lord, — Malachi i. 13. 

**P VERY good and perfect gift," says Saint 
James, *' cometh down from the Father 
of Hghts ; " and this is true. His gifts are 
perfect. He fills the forest depths, which no 
man sees, with foHage exquisitely perfect in 
every form and tint. He crowneth the year 
with His goodness. His rains descend upon 
the just and unjust. And in return do we 
offer Him gifts and sacrifices of our best? 
Alas ! God's rebuke to the Israelites in the 
text might be sounded in the ears of multi- 
tudes to-day with as much justice and in 
tones as reproachful as then. They brought 
blemished offerings to His altar. They 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 43 

selected the refuse of their flocks to give to 
Him, as if the all-seeing God could be thus 
insulted with impunity, just as we so often 
bring to Him the fragments of life, — dying 
regrets, meagre obedience, stinted benevo- 
lence. We offer our unworthy, heartless, 
partial sacrifices, knowing that we do so only 
to keep up appearances. When our ven- 
tures in business are unsuccessful, the first 
sign of retrenchment is almost invariably 
shown in connection with things that belong 
to God. As if He who gave what we have 
had and enjoyed must, so to speak, be pun- 
ished if He doth not give in the same meas- 
ure always. How many, too, there are who 
seem to say to their Father in Heaven, *' I 
will enjoy thy gifts, good and perfect as they 
are, until the day come when I no longer 
have any pleasure in them ; then will I ofi"er 
to Thee my waning strength and weakened 



44 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

mind ! " How many who, in the full enjoy- 
ment of life, health, comfort, and pleasure, 
— each and all God's gifts, — dare to say to 
Him, in deed if not in word, '' When evil 
days come, when the pressure of business is 
less, and the fires of ambition smouldering, 
then I will give to Thee and Thy service, not 
the first fruits, but the dying embers ! '' Ah, 
while he has granted to us talents, home, 
prosperity, and above all the power to enjoy 
them, let us consecrate these good gifts to 
Him in grateful recognition of His love ; and 
even if He sees fit to take them from us in 
large measure, let us still offer to Him the 
best of what remains, and He will bless the 
offering, for He is a loving Father, as well as 
a jealous God. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 45 



WEDNESDAY. 

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. — 
St. Luke xvii.'2o. 

T^HIS unqualified declaration comes to 
those who are evermore dissatisfied with 
the measure of religious light vouchsafed 
them, and are always attempting to fathom 
depths or penetrate mysteries; and to such 
the Saviour says, '' All these speculations 
are useless and vain. The kingdom of God 
is not gained by resorting to cunning theories 
or imaginations, but by steady, conscientious 
devotion to duties rather than to chimeras, 
by faithful perseverance in whatever sphere 
you may be placed/' This gives the royal 
stamp of immortality to the soul ; this gives 
dignity to every step of our journey, and 
brings us nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven 



46 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

than we shall ever be if, neglecting that por- 
tion of it which is within us, we try to wrest 
from the Almighty the secrets He has re- 
served to Himself, or seek to pierce the veil 
which divides the heavenly kingdom from 
our earth-clouded vision. Here we shall 
always '' see through a glass darkly." It is 
enough to know that there *^we shall see face 
to face." 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 47 

THURSDAY. 

O tarry thou the Lord's leisure. — Psalm xxvii. 16. 

T^HE discipline of delay is God's method 
of training, strengthening, and perfecting 
character, though our human hearts yield 
most reluctantly to its demands. Short- 
sighted, eager, impatient, we find it irksome 
and almost intolerable at times to labor and 
hope and then to wait. To the restless, self- 
confident soul, the call to delay seems need- 
less, but it must be obeyed; for God has 
placed rewards in spiritual husbandry pre- 
cisely as we find them in the world of Nature, 
where faithful conformity to His will. His 
appointed time, brings the appointed result. 
We may chafe and rebel against this disci- 
pline ; but every successful husbandman, 
ignorant and uncultured though he may be 



48 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

in all other lore, recognizes and reads a lesson 
of wisdom the wisest and most learned among 
men would do well to ponder, though he sim- 
ply acts upon a principle of faith gained by 
years of experience, knowing that if he obeys 
Nature's laws, the God who made them will 
not withhold the promised reward; and, as 
Saint James tells us, '^ he hath long patience," 
observing times and seasons, sowing seed, 
removing weeds, and putting in the sickle 
only when the harvest is ripe. 

Our human life is made up of delays, 
postponements, longings held in check, and 
aspirations subdued. A voice from time 
to time says suddenly, ** Tarry here, pause, 
wait." And we fret and murmur while 
God breaks up the self-indulgent life of 
years, and checks us in full career by some 
grief or disappointment, when He sees that 
we are becoming independent of Him, deaf 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 49 

to conscience, and in danger of losing '' the 
inheritance He hath prepared for those who 
love Him ; '' and no one of us can deny that 
but for these occasional hindrances in a too 
prosperous life, these opportunities forced 
upon us for earnest, honest thought, apart 
from worldly distractions, evils sure to spring 
from a too easy or a too busy life would 
desolate us. Ah, let us bless the wise and 
all-loving Father, who puts clogs upon our 
feet here, that we may be able hereafter '' to 
run and not be weary,'' ''to walk and not 
faint;" and who bids us tarry His leisure 
now, that He may make us strong and ready 
to obey the summons when He says, '' Come 
up higher." 



50 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



FRIDAY. 

When He suffered He threatefied not. — St. Peter 
ii. 23. 

'T'HERE is no grace which in these restless 
days so needs cultivation as that of pa- 
tience and calm, steady submission to the 
will of God, not only with the heart, but with 
the mind ; for it is because reason rebels and 
argues and denies, that so much misery exists. 
Like Job, men ask, " How can Divine justice 
degrade uprightness and integrity? Where- 
fore are we trodden down?'* But when God 
spoke to Job out of the overhanging cloud, 
as He will speak to each one of us in hours 
of doubt and perplexity if we will only 
listen, the voice of complaint was hushed, 
the tumult ceased, and Job became conscious 
that where there was power there were also 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 51 

wisdom, justice, and love, as well as a far- 
reaching vision into the future beyond all 
human power of penetration. We should 
realize, too, that in gaining patience we pos- 
sess the truest, best philosophy; for nothing 
so exposes man or woman to commiseration 
as the want of this especial grace. To be 
easily ruffled, to be carried captive in an 
instant by some headlong impulse, — ah, no 
humiliation is like it. How it unfits one for 
the duties of life, and darkens the whole sky 
of our influence and happiness ! Whereas 
under all disturbances patience is conquest. 
Christ conquered by it. " It was the victory 
of the Judgment Hall ; it was the triumph of 
the Cross.'' 



52 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



SATURDAY. 

Be pitiful^ be courteous. — General Epistle of 
St. John iii. 8. 

T^HIS is the law of love written on the 
heart by the Spirit of God, and finding 
expression in every mode of intercourse 
between man and man. Christian courtesy 
is the true index of that of which worldly 
courtesy is the cloak, — the heart, the hidden 
human heart. The smile, the honeyed ac- 
cents, which help on the great movements of 
society, may be as meaningless and hollow as 
" sounding brass or tinkling cymbals," having 
their source and spring in policy, expediency, 
or even secret malice ; while the courtesy of 
the Christian, though conformed to every 
conventional usage, is answerable to a higher* 



j 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 53 

law than any taught by the master of assem- 
blies, — not confined to diques or coteries, 
not dependent upon caste or condition, but 
uniform, universal, and above all true and 
sincere. 



€l^irti ^untiap in %enu 

Peter saith to Jesus ^ Lord, and what shall this 
man do? Jesus saith unto him, What is that to 
theef Follow thou me, — St. John xxi. 21, 22. 

TT was during the last tender interview 
between the Master and His impetuous 
disciple that these words were uttered. Saint 
Peter was anxious to know what the future 
career of Saint John would be, and though 
the inquiry was innocent in itself, and there 
is no reason to believe that our Lord was 
angry with Saint Peter for making it. He yet 
seized this opportunity to rebuke a needless 
curiosity concerning the affairs ojf others; for 
what was innocent in Saint Peter, and may 
be equally so in any man, is nevertheless a 
tendency which easily grows into vice ; and 
none are so miserable, none so dangerous, as 



56 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

those who are constantly busied with the 
affairs of other people. Out from this eager, 
prying spirit, as from a hot-bed, spring the 
poisonous plants of envy and slander ; and the 
constant desire to know the plans or condi- 
tion of each friend and neighbor makes the 
heart at last a helpless prey to restlessness 
and repining, for it is, alas, an appetite which 
increases with what it feeds upon. 

Our Saviour, you remember, not only- 
rebuked this trait in Saint Peter, but al- 
most invariably evaded useless inquiries and 
turned the whole current of His teachings 
upon individual duties. When His disciples 
asked Him, " What shall be the sign of the 
and of the world?" His answer was, "Watch, 
and be ye ready, for in such an hour as ye 
think not the Son of man cometh/' When 
one asked Him, *' Lord, are they few that be 
saved?" His rejoinder was, "Enter ye in at 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 57 

the strait gate." Yes, His admonition would 
seem to call upon every soul to be intent 
upon its own work, its own obligations, and 
to make clear the fact that if we cannot re- 
sist temptation or do our duty in the path 
He has chosen for us, no change of circum- 
stances will avail. It is not the elevation or 
obscurity of place^ it is doing right that 
brings a man peace at the last. 



58 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



MONDAY. 

We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of 
the weak, and 7iot to please ourselves. — Romans xv. i, 

IVjO warning of God, no cry of humanity, is 
so piercing and startling as that which 
calls us to guard our conduct, and look well 
to our personal influence; for, while there 
are things which are eternally right and eter- 
nally wrong, there is also a class of indul- 
gences in that misty twilight of doubt, that 
debatable land, in regard to which every 
Christian has a certain discretion to exercise 
and a responsibility to bear ; and no man or 
woman should tread so far upon the ground 
of doubtful gratification as to run the risk 
of leading one less able to resist excess to 
take perhaps the first step on a downward 
path which, ending, it may be, for the weaker 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 59 

soul in ruin, can be traced back step by step 
to some careless, selfish indulgence of our 
own, to which we gave no heed, being anx- 
ious only to please ourselves. Ah, my 
friends, no one of us may stand aside in 
proud indifference, with Cain's words, ** Am 
I my brother's keeper?" finding expression 
in our acts and influence, without incurring 
for the soul-murder which may result the 
terrible curse which followed him. 



60 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



TUESDAY. 

And every one that was in distress and every one 
that was in debt and every one that was discontented 
gathered themselves unto him^ and he became a captain 
over thefn, — i Samuel xxii. 2. 

PERSECUTED by the relentless hand of 
Saul, David fled to the Cave of Adullam. 
His path had never been so rough, or his 
prospects so disheartening ; and, almost over- 
borne by the merciless and ever watchful 
vengeance which pursued him, he cries in 
the One Hundred and Forty-second Psalm, 
'* Oh, deliver me from my persecutors, for 
they are too strong for me.*' Then, as if in 
response to his cry for help, his hiding-place 
is discovered by his brethren and kinsmen, 
who flock to his side, and with them a large 
company, drawn to his standard by a corn- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 6 1 

mon impulse. They wanted a fresh starting- 
point, an inspiring chief; and, regarding him 
as one who might have fellowship with their 
experiences, they joined themselves to him, 
and he became their leader. 

My friends, is there no lesson for us to 
draw from this incident in the life of David, 
as during these sacred days we hear the cry, 
'' My Gods my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me? '' from the lips of Him who was pursued 
with bitter persecution even to the cave in 
the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea? And 
are there none who, distressed, in debt, or 
discontented, will gather around this inno- 
cent sufferer, and choose Him for their 
Leader and Captain, who in all their afflic- 
tions is afflicted? Oh, if David's sorrows 
proved a bond of sympathy between him 
and others who were sorrowing, shall we not 
find in ** great David's greater Son," the Re- 



62 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

deemer of the world, one to whom we may 
fly in every extremity of our lives, sure of 
His wise and loving guidance, and who, as 
the Captain of our Salvation, can lead us on 
to triumph over Sin, Satan, and Death, our 
three relentless enemies, until we reach the 
place of safety in which He has promised 
that '' all who suffer shall also reign with 
Him"? 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 63 



WEDNESDAY. 

Even as Christ forgave yoti^ so also do ye. — CoLOS- 
SIANS iii. 13. 

CVEN as Christ forgave us, so we must 
forgive. And how did He forgive? As 
knowing all. When He talked with the 
woman at the well, He knew all ; when He 
turned and looked upon Peter, He knew all 
There was and is no summing-up of evidence 
with Him. He knows our thoughts long 
before, and knowing them forgives, — not 
with petty reservations, not with a root of 
bitterness lingering beneath, as we forgive; 
for as soon as we are sorry for the sin of 
thought or word or deed His pardon is full 
and complete, even though the repentance 
comes only after long years of transgression, 
when, ** grieved and wearied with the burden 



64 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

of our sins/* we turn to Hinri. I know how 
hard it is to forgive as He forgives. The 
whole course of society and Hfe around us 
tends to self-assertion and resentment ; and 
our great and constant trials lie in trying to 
suffer again and again, '* till seventy times 
seven," the waywardness of the thoughtless, 
the wavering of the fickle, ''the despiteful- 
ness of the proud," the real mischief inflicted 
by criminal carelessness. To suffer long 
from those whom we neither dread nor are 
bound to revere, — those whom we may have 
perhaps the right to control, the power to 
punish, — to deal mercifully with such is 
often a crucial test of our Christian profes- 
sion, but never an impossible one to bear, if 
we remember that we are to forgive others 
their trespasses as our Father in Heaven for- 
gives ours, even though the fight for victory 
is made doubly hard by the fact that at the 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 65 

root of our unwillingness to pardon lies often- 
times the spirit of envy and jealousy, which 
makes us resent, not only the actual tres- 
passes of others against ourselves, but their 
condition or circumstances, if they happen 
to be or we happen to think them superior to 
our own. Have you never been tempted to 
disparage the rich, the eminent, the able, by 
some insinuation that the wealthy can be 
liberal without sacrifice, that one rose from 
humble origin, that another has a bar sinis- 
ter upon his family name, that the beautiful 
are conscious of their beauty, not perhaps 
uttered with personal hostility, but with a 
sort of inability to forgive those who by 
natural endowments or providential events or 
even by eminence in goodness and deserved 
success have been lifted above the ordinary 
level? Ah, my friends, we shall never rise 
above a very ordinary level until we strive to 
5 



66 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

imitate the Christ-like standard of forgive- 
ness, which is far above such ignoble tenden- 
cies, " rejoicing with those who do rejoice," 
and forgiving in the large-hearted spirit 
'* which seeketh not her own, and thinketh 
no evil." 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 6/ 



THURSDAY. 

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the 
feeble knees ; say to the?n of a fearful heart, Be strong, 
Isaiah xxxv. 3. 

Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people^ saith our God, — 
Isaiah xl. i. 

/\/\ Y friends, God has knit us all together 
within the limits of one dwelling-place ; 
and our happiness, our progress, our peace 
and security, depend upon the fulfilment of 
His command in the texts from which I 
quote. It is the simple law of civil and 
social life ; and if broken, the penalty falls 
not so much upon those we neglect as upon 
ourselves. No one class can be selfishly 
extravagant, worldly, or dissipated without 
tainting all classes with evil, to be recognized 
in forms of dishonesty, intemperance, impu- 



68 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 

rity, and violence, which, Hke a tidal wave, 
rolls back to menace the safety of our homes 
and our business ; and in like manner what 
we withhold of comfort, of sympathy, and 
above all of good example, from those be- 
neath us in the social scale (as the world 
interprets that term) is a loss to ourselves, 
for such parsimony has an inexorable recoil. 

Remember, then, always, and especially 
during this season of Lent, that the noblest 
as well as the wisest occupation that can be 
added to your church and home duties is to 
comfort God's people and^to strengthen weak 
hands. No man or woman ever helped 
another in misfortune, doubt, or difficulty 
without receiving a blessing in return; while 
nothing so invigorates our own faith as the 
endeavor to stimulate some weaker heart, 
and fan the dying flame of trust in some 
troubled breast into a deeper, purer glow. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 69 

This, too, we may do without asking the 
name, country, or creed of those to whom 
we minister; for He who was born in a 
manger and had not where to lay His head 
is the Redeemer of the worldy and ''died to 
save us all.*' 



70 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



FRIDAY. 

Return to thine own house and show how great 
things God hath done unto thee, — St. Luke viii. 39. 

YOU must have noticed, my friends, that 
our Lord almost invariably repressed 
the outbursts of mere emotion, and, ignor- 
ing the expression of ecstatic and impul- 
sive devotion, kept truth and duty stead- 
fastly in view; and when the man out of 
whom He had cast the devils petitioned that 
he might be allowed to walk by the side of 
his Healer in a new path, and amid more 
congenial pursuits perhaps than those sur- 
rounding his daily occupations, our Saviour 
sent him away, saying, '' Return to thine own 
house and show how great things God hath 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 71 

done for thee/' And this is what He says to 
each one of us. He bids us make home the 
scene of our most conscientious efforts, and 
show there unapplauded and unnoticed as 
earnest a spirit as we w^ould exhibit in carry- 
ing forward some great enterprise. This is 
to be a doer of the work, and not a mere 
dreamer or sentimentahst exalted to the 
highest peak of some mount of vision by 
the startHng and often misleading eloquence 
of some new preacher or the excitement of a 
religious revival only to fall prone to earth 
crushed by the first real test of our professed 
belief. Nay, rather let your belief prove a 
living, soul-kindling thing, in which you trust 
and rest. Be not ashamed ^o demand homage 
for it; be not backward to honor and magnify 
it by consistent loyalty ; bring it into contact 
with everything that interests you ; and, what- 



72 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

ever may be the temptation to seek some 
more public highway for the demonstra- 
tion of your rehgious fervor, remember the 
Master's command, '* Return to thine own 
house." 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. J2> 



SATURDAY. 

Thoic shalt not follow the multitude to do evil, — 
Exodus xxiii. 21. 

TTHE influence and sway of numbers has 
ever been, as it is to-day, the fatal snare 
on the path of hfe ; and no advantage does 
the Devil more subtly and constantly make 
use of than that which lies in the power of 
the majority, the multitude. 

The children of darkness outnumber the 
children of light as the leaves outnumber the 
fruit upon the tree-; and as their influence 
exerts itself over us, we find ourselves yield- 
ing, not always with the intention of doing 
wrong, but from impulse, — the impulse 
which so often in times of political excite- 
ment draws on the sober and well-meaning 
citizen to join and follow the mob, partly from 



74 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 

curiosity, until he has half-unconsciously 
become so far a part of it as to be held 
responsible for its deeds of violence and the 
spirit of insubordination it has aroused. Ah, 
how hard it is for the most consistent Chris- 
tian, even at this season, to resist the current 
which sweeps by, bearing thousands with 
it toward extravagance, toward scepticism, 
toward social impurity, while the temptation 
is made doubly alluring by the fact that this 
multitude is not composed of the ignorant, 
the base, the degraded, but of the learned, 
the wealthy, the respectable. Those whose 
acquirements, whose culture, whose accom- 
plishments we admire would lure us on to 
the relinquishment of religious duties, the 
desecration of God's holy day, and to a 
gradual hardening of conscience, regarding 
our scruples as Pharisaical or old-fashioned ; 
and we first waver, and then surrender, and, 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 75 

though professing still to follow Christ, fol- 
lowing the multitude in fact, and forgetting 
entirely the solemn truth that where ques- 
tions of religious responsibility are concerned 
there is no security whatever in the strength 
of numbers. Right, duty, principle are un- 
changeable ; they are personal. We may 
run with the multitude through life, but 
death at the end must be met alone, when the 
dread of being thought righteous overmuch, 
the ambition to be regarded as liberal and 
broad in one's views, will shrink into nothing- 
ness beside the longing for peace and for- 
giveness and the smile of the Saviour we 
have slighted. 



fmttf^ J^untiap in Stent 

TMs beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of 
Galilee^ and manifested forth His glory. 

His 7nother saith unto the servants^ Whatsoever 
He saith unto you do it, — St. John ii. 5, ii. 

HTHIS beginning of miracles did indeed 
manifest forth the glory of our blessed 
Lord, for it foreshadowed His whole future 
work, — His power to ennoble what is com- 
mon, to transfigure what is mean, to turn the 
water .of earth into the wine of Heaven. 
The unconscious utterance, too, which fell 
from the lips of Mary, the Virgin Mother, 
struck a keynote of that principle which is 
the life of the Christian faith, and more influ- 
ential than any other in its extension and its 
triumph: I mean the principle of implicit 



78 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

obedience to Christ's command. *' Whatso- 
ever He saith unto you, do it/' - 

My friends, there may be very much of 
reHgion where there is very Httle Christianity. 
The essence of Christianity is unreserved 
submission to a Hving Christ, whereas the 
reHgion of our day is largely occupied with 
an ideal Christ, a Christ on paper, a Christ 
in controversy and criticism, or as projected 
in creeds and usages of worship, beautiful 
only as a poem is beautiful. Our Saviour's 
mother recognized Him just where we should 
recognize Him, in His dealing with ordinary 
life and as being interested in common wants. 
Although unseen He is never absent from 
us in any of the events or under any of the 
circumstances of our mortal life, but is with 
us- here to-day in our joys as at the mar- 
riage in Cana of Galilee, in our sorrows as 
in the Httle household at Bethany, stiH bless- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 79 

ing little children, condescending to the Mag- 
dalen and entering our Gethsemane. This 
is His relationship to us, and our conscious- 
ness of it is evinced by our obedience to 
the command spoken so long ago, *^ What- 
soever He saith unto you, do it/' 

One other unconscious utterance of a great 
truth was spoken at the marriage in Cana 
when the governor of the feast expressed 
to the bridegroom his surprise and satisfac- 
tion that the good wine, instead of being 
dispensed at the beginning, had been kept 
until the end. He knew it not, and yet it 
was to be the unchangeable law of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom that the good wine should 
be kept until the last. This is not the law of 
the world ; that corresponds with the custom 
of the Jews. Here the good wine is given 
first, ''and when men have well drunk then 
that which is worse," and to those who have 



8o A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

ventured and sacrificed and tolled for earth's 
rewards there remains only bitter dregs at 
the bottom of the cup when Hfe's feast is 
over; but Christ has better things in store 
than He has ever given here, and if we hold 
His blessings and mercies gratefully, and re- 
sign them at His will. He has treasures for 
us in Heaven where we shall drink the new 
wine with Him in His Father's kingdom. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 8 1 



MONDAY. 

If thou hast run with footmen and they have 
wearied thee^ how canst thou contend with horses? 
And if in the land of peace wherein thou trustedst 
they wearied thee^ how wilt thou do in the swelling 
of Jordan? — Jeremiah xii. 5. 

T^HESE thrilling words were God's reproof 
to the Prophet Jeremiah, who, wearied 
with the indifference and hardness of those 
to whom he had been sent, cried out in his 
impatience and discouragement, ** Wherefore 
doth the way of the wicked prosper? How 
long shall the land mourn? " and in response 
there comes to the complaining soul of Old 
Testament history, as it comes with equal 
force to the men of the nineteenth century, 
the rebuke of the text, *' If in the land of 
peace wherein thou trustedst they wearied 

6 



82 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

thee, how wilt thou do in the swelling of 
Jordan?'' In the race of life there is a time 
for every one of us when we run with footmen 
and not with horses, — when, while each day 
may have its trials and perplexities, we are 
still dwelling in a land of comparative peace 
and safety; and though the puzzling ques- 
tions which discouraged the prophet may also 
try our faith, we are yet to use this period 
as the testing time of our experience, so 
that when the hour comes for us to run with 
the swift horses of great adversity or sorrow 
we may ** neither faint nor fail." The words 
I speak to-day are heard by those who have 
read of the horrors of British India dur- 
ing the siege of Lucknow, of the tortures 
of Siberian captives, who may have known 
as well as read heart-rending episodes in 
our own civil war, and remembering such 
tokens of God's dealing with men like our- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 83 

selves, should feel that when the shadows 
and anticipations which fill them with dis- 
may as some ambitious dream fails to reach 
a waking fulfilment, or some business en- 
terprise disappoints, these are not worthy 
to be compared with the real demands 
which might and may be made upon our 
strength. 

Ah, no, my friends, if we would be ready for 
the '' swelling of Jordan " in the hour which 
comes to try men's souls we must cultivate 
each day of our lives the spirit of calm forti- 
tude and Christian heroism which when we 
stand on the '' verge of Jordan " may enable 
us to appropriate the Divine promise and 
to say in full assurance of faith, ** When I 
go through the waters thou wilt be with 
me, and through the rivers they shall not 
overflow me." 



84 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



TUESDAY. 

They loved the praise of men. — St. John xii. 43. 

'T'HE desire to be approved is inherent in 
us all, and most of us depend largely 
upon the approbation of those we love and 
respect for the development of our best pow- 
ers ; but the longing for that form of praise 
which tempts us to spread our sails to every 
wind, to violate duty that we may secure a 
smile, the yearning fondness for mere ap- 
plause, — this is a source of mischief and of 
ruin. Nothing so effectually steals the soul 
away from what is real, in itself, in the world, 
in religion, as this craving to be well spoken 
of; for though a man may be conscious that 
the voice of flattery is deceiving him, he is 
anxious to be deceived, and gladly welcomes 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 85 

all who bring an offering to the idol of self- 
love he has set up in his heart. Nor is there 
any snare which the Evil One sets in our way 
more difficult to escape from than the en- 
thrallment of approbation. Our whole path 
of life must be lined with fair speeches or we 
are unhappy; nay, our very errors and defects 
must be transformed into virtues by the 
alchemy of admiration or we are miserable. 
Praise becomes an absolute necessity to us. 
The slighting word, the deprecating glance 
are like the stings of a scorpion ; we chafe at 
neglect and are maddened by rivalry, and so 
become by degrees anxious, impatient, sensi- 
tive, and at length are slaves to that empty 
passion which flattery feeds but never satis- 
fies. It has been said that *^ no man can be 
widely popular and greatly good,'' and while 
this statement need be neither affirmed nor 
denied, of one thing we may be certain, the 



86 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

world rarely bestows its praises for nought. 
It requires payment, and men as a rule are 
prone to give in a measure equal to the 
demand ; for when the price of applause is 
withheld there is no bestowment so reluc- 
tantly offered. It is just here that the Chris- 
tian's greatest danger lies ; he must either 
meet the views of the scoffer and the luke- 
warm or be regarded as singular, and avoided 
as one who has no right to be true to a more 
exalted standard than the world thinks fit to 
adopt, — a hard position to maintain' if one 
** loves the praise of men," even though the 
failure to maintain it may bring the stamp of 
falsehood upon the church, and put Christ to 
an open shame. It is this love of the world's 
smile which leads so many of us to tolerate 
doubtful amusements or demoralizing social 
customs, where beneath the garb of an angel 
of light the devil lures Christians on to stifle 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 8/ 

conscience and to regard leniently the social, 
political, or business habits which cover 
deadly sin. Think for one moment, my 
friends, of the saints, the martyrs, the pa- 
triots, the reformers to whom, under God, we 
owe the blessings which make our day and 
generation rich in the possession of religious 
and civil liberty; think of Saint Paul, of Wy- 
cliffe, of Luther, Washington, and Lincoln ; 
were they men willing to sell the birthright 
of their souls for the '* praise of men " ? A 
thousand times No. They followed the ex- 
ample held before us during these Lenten 
days, and yielding neither to love of praise 
nor fear of censure, clung to the right 
through life to death. 



88 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



WEDNESDAY. 

Watch ye therefore and pray always, — St. Luke 
xxi. 36. 

TT is not for the pastor or the preacher to 
know how many of those he addresses 
are accustomed in their families or in private 
to sustain the spirit of devotion, nor is it 
his province to penetrate into their motives 
or tendencies where rehgious matters are 
concerned. Of these, as personal, he must 
be ignorant; but it is a general truth, which 
no man can gainsay, that when public and 
formal acts of religion are over most of us 
are swept irresistibly into the current of 
worldliness, and float upon its tide as if 
we had parted from God and had found 
once more our own proper as well as most 
congenial element. The week of business 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 89 

has begun, and now from sunrise to sunset 
the mechanic, the man of business, the work- 
ing man of every class and profession is 
toihng, plodding, delving, while the man of. 
so-called leisure, the creature of pleasure 
IS even more laboriously bound down to 
the round of social demands and engage- 
ments; and thus the week wears on while 
worship and prayer are thrust aside, pent 
up in one day of the seven, one day grudg- 
ingly bestowed upon God and the soul. Life 
is a long toil with an occasional Sabbath 
gleam of light upon it, and hence comes 
sour and restless discontent. The workman 
complains, the business man complains, all 
complain of the intense pressure of daily 
duties. All wear the appearance of a 
wearied, saddened people; and yet how 
few are ready to turn aside from these 
dusty paths and refresh themselves with 



90 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

the prospect of repose in a better world. 
Indeed, they will rather tell you that you 
may pray and you may preach, but you 
cannot dislodge them from the realities of 
business or the pursuit of wealth, that men 
are human and must be governed by the 
instincts and impulses of humanity ; and this 
view of the subject seems, I daresay, to 
many of us plausible and full of common- 
sense, as in the full tide of health and energy 
we listen to it with only too willing ears. 
But to the man who uses this argument, 
to the man who listens, to all men there 
will come a day when nothing in the uni- 
verse will be real but the very things now 
deemed unreal, — a day and an event which 
will drive this world with its absorbing cares 
away from us like a dream; and then 
who, I ask, is the visionary, he who is 
wise for the world he is leaving, or he who 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 91 

is wise for the world he must enter? The 
command of the text which bids us " w^atch 
and pray " gives us the only method of 
preparing for this hour, the only means of 
escape from our overburdened lives. In- 
dustry in our day is not the blessing it 
is intended to be, but rather our worst 
enemy for this world and the next, unless 
we watch against its encroachments as we 
would retreat from an incoming tide, and 
pray to be lifted high and safe beyond its 
power to destroy, upon the rock which rises 
above the ^' waves of this troublesome world,'' 
and '' that rock is Christ/' 



92 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



THURSDAY. 

Leaving us an example that we should follow in 
His steps. — St. Peter ii. 21, 

Among the chief rulers many believed on Him, but 
because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him. — 
St. John xii. 43. 

T^HE chief rulers in our Lord's day and the 
chief rulers, in a literal sense, of our own 
time adopt the world's standard of consist- 
ency, loyalty, and devotion to right, however 
far it may fall below Christ's example ; but, 
alas ! only in the things which belong to 
Christ. In the realm of intellect no man is 
willing to measure his mind by ordinary 
standards. In business or professional life 
men of energy, enterprise, ambition, are 
utterly averse to aim only at the mark others 
have reached. Indeed, the characteristic of 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 93 

this age is to inspire each man with a desire 
to do more than other men have done or can 
do, while in the social world the votaries 
of fashion find it insupportable to be out- 
done in ingenuity of resource, or lavish mode 
of entertainment. No, in all things pertain- 
ing to this world we are continually striving 
to rise beyond ordinary standards, and the 
impulse in itself is altogether right and 
natural; for character deteriorates when con- 
fined to a narrow circle or a self-opinionated 
class, and no man ever gained the respect or 
admiration of his fellows by being content 
with low aims or easily won laurels. But why 
should it be thought that what is not enough 
for the man should be enough for the Chris- 
tian ; that what belittles the mind should fail 
to dwarf the soul ? Why are we willing — 
we who have Christ's example as a standard 
— to follow the example of weak, erring men 



94 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

like ourselves where our best and undying 
interests are concerned ? I believe it is be- 
cause in our efforts to out-do each other 
here, in our eager race for this world's prizes, 
we leave ourselves too little time to seek the 
rewards of heaven. Will you not then pause 
long enough to-day, and throughout this 
season of especial and blessed opportunity, 
to realize that there is but one perfect stand- 
ard worth reaching, one example worth fol- 
lowing, that left us by Him who, though 
tempted in all points like as we are, was 
without sin, and who is able to raise us above 
the sordid, unsatisfying strife of earth to that 
''peace which the world cannot give ?" 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 95 



FRIDAY. 

Prove your own selves. — 2 Corinthians xiii. 5. 

'T'HE strength that is in man or woman can 
only be learned when individual re- 
sources are taxed. What we may do with 
others does not test us; but when the Evil 
One comes to tempt us, as he tempted our 
Saviour, he meets us in the wilderness alone, 
and it is there, face to face, that the struggle 
for the mastery takes place. It is there that 
we *' prove our own selves.*' A hard and 
lonely battle we shall find it, and all the more 
so because for many of us during this sacred 
season there is danger that we may allow 
the religion of feeling and emotion to draw 
us away from practical, commonplace rela- 



96 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 

tions in life, and thus leave ourselves, half 
unconsciously, a prey to temptations of a 
subtle sort which come under forms of spirit- 
ual pride ; for it is difficult to remember that 
these are temptations while w^e feel the glow 
of enthusiasm as we listen to some impas- 
sioned preacher or yield a hearty, devout 
*^ Amen " at the close of some argument 
for the truth, or lend a willing hand to 
some effort for the furtherance of God's king- 
dom, and the Tempter whispers, " This is 
enough ; " but our conscience should reply, 
'^This is nothing," for these impulses of admi- 
ration, generosity, and sympathy, though well 
meant at the moment, do not prove our own 
selves but rather prove the power of some 
one else upon ourselves, the impress of some 
nobler soul upon our own. Our work is 
still to be done, our separate mission to 
be fulfilled, high or humble as the case 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



97 



may be; and at the close of each of these 
Lenten days we should look back, not upon 
what we have heard and felt alone, but upon 
what we have done to ** prove our own 
selves/' 



98 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 



SATURDAY. 

He requested for himself that he might die* — 
I Kings xix. 4 

T^HERE is scarcely a grander figure in 
Old Testament history than that of the 
prophet Elijah as he goes fearlessly forth 
with unfaltering step to meet his enemies, the 
Priests of Baal, and utterly overwhelms them 
by the God-given power which enables him 
to call down rain upon their altars, and thus 
quench the fires of their burnt offerings. But 
when we look for a song of thanksgiving and 
a renewal of faith after this triumph, which 
will render him indifferent to the threats of 
Jezebel, we find him hiding under a juniper- 
tree, with the blasphemous and despairing 
cry of the text upon his lips. The reaction 
had come, and the courage and self-reliance 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 99 

(alas, there must have been more of that 
than faith in God) which had carried him 
through the hour of great peril, was suc- 
ceeded by a weak yielding to despondency, 
— a physical and natural result, perhaps, but 
unworthy of the man of God. And this 
episode in the prophet's life holds a lesson 
for us all of the necessity for exercising a firm 
reliance upon God, not merely at intervals or 
upon great occasions, but when " flesh and 
heart faileth ; " for the impatience and dis- 
quietude which succeed moments of triumph 
and success are in reality a collapse of faith, 
a putting off of the armor of God, and dis- 
covering our defencelessness to our ever 
watchful enemy. For be assured of one 
absolute and unquestionable fact, that never 
under any circumstances can there be any 
good or sufficient reason for the child of God 
" to request for himself that he may die.'' 



lOO A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

The Evil One may tempt us under the guise 
of despair, in sorrow or in illness or in 
misfortune; the physical and mental recoil 
after some great excitement may be almost 
too great to bear, and the Devil may assert 
that we cannot bear it. But in such an 
hour, in every hour, it is our privilege and 
within our power to say in reply, ^* I can do 
all things through Christ which strength- 
eneth me." 



f iftJj ^untiap in %tnu 

And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law ^ but Ruth 
clave tmto her. — Ruth i. i6. 

TTHE text for this morning is from a 
story familiar to us all and yet ever 
new, ever full of deep impressiveness in 
the wonderful contrast it presents between 
the spirit of self-interest, and loyal stead- 
fast devotion to sacred obligation, holding 
too a warning and example which can never 
lose their power while human nature strug- 
gles, century after century, in its choice be- 
tween good and evil. Orpah's constancy 
was measured by a kiss bestowed, perhaps 
in all tenderness and affection, but never- 
theless the very least that could be given 
where so much was due. Her voice may 



102 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

have been louder in lamentation than her 
sister's, her tears more abundant; but neither 
in tears or heart or wail was there a particle of 
the spirit of self-sacrifice ; and herein Orpah 
represents a class almost innumerable in 
our day, whose fidelity in matters of affec- 
tion and Christian duty has but the depth, 
the endurance of a kiss, a faithfulness not 
destitute of feeling, not without its occa- 
sional bursts of ardor, its passionate words, 
but lacking in the principle of high, steady, 
all-surrendering love, which acts and abides 
and clings when it has no other prompting 
or support than the simple consciousness 
of duty. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law 
and then forsook her, and in like manner 
do the disciples of the Divine Master kiss 
Him in the critical moments of their lives, 
when their hearts are full, when they lie 
upon the couch of pain or find the mid- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 1 03 

night of sorrow closing in around them, only 
to return to their own country and to their 
idols when the pressure of chastisement is 
withdrawn. But if this attitude of Orpah's 
is such a natural and common one, why 
is it that the universal heart turns away 
from her, and that whenever this narra- 
tive is read she is followed back to her 
people and her gods with a feeling of con- 
tempt ? Alas, our own hearts will tell us 
that guilty though we may be ourselves of 
the sins of unfaithfulness, there are none 
we more loathe in others. Human nature 
shrinks back with instinctive detestation from 
the character which studies interest at the 
expense of loyalty, and whose devotion to 
ties and attachments perishes before the first 
blast of adversity, while history condemns to 
a hopeless immortality the names and mem- 
ory of those who have been false to sacred 



104 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

VOWS and eternal obligations. But enough 
of this dark picture. Let us gather a differ- 
ent and last impression from the beautiful 
and sublime contrast in which Ruth stands 
out against the background of Orpah's deser- 
tion. Love like hers knows no change ; and 
it is this grand, unfaltering devotion to one 
object, to one land, one love, one faith, which 
makes the highest grade of human character, 
and gives stability to everything worth pos- 
sessing. It is such loyalty, based upon con- 
science, kept alive by love and strengthened 
by the vicissitudes of this changeful world, 
which gives its best significance to family 
life. What would be our domestic reunions, 
our gifts and greetings at Christmas-Tide, at 
birthday feasts, without this grand principle 
of cohesion and constancy .?* It is a spirit like 
Ruth*s which makes us cling to hallowed 
memories and associations, — true through 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 105 

all dangers, true when others kiss and say- 
farewell. And have you ever reflected that 
our blessed Lord, the descendant in direct 
line from Ruth, He who died for us upon the 
cross, and having loved His own who were in 
the world, loved them unto the end, added 
new sacredness to constancy and raised it to 
a higher level? For thirty years He conse- 
crated one home by fihal tenderness, and 
though he came to save the world was all 
His human life loyal to one country, faithful 
unto death to every human tie, to every di- 
vine obligation. Even at the last, as life ebbs 
away on the shameful cross, his tender words, 
** Mother, behold thy son," commend her 
who was dearest to Him to the disciple 
whom He loved, ere His last words, '* Father, 
into thy hands I commend my spirit,'' attest 
the completion of a life marked more 
sublimely than was ever any other life by 
constancy, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. 



I06 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



MONDAY. 

And one shall say unto Him, What are these 
wounas in thine hands? The7i shall He answer^ 
Those with which I was wounded in the house of 
my friends, — Zechariah xiii. 6. 

HTHE tokens of betrayal were in those 
wounded hands; the kiss of Judas, 
the denial of Peter, the flight of the dis- 
ciples had left their mark in every nail- 
print, and that which aggravated the hor- 
rors of the crucifixion, that which strikes 
every observer as the most surpassing wrong 
perpetrated there, is the part which friends 
assumed. It is the fact that Jesus, who so 
lately stood in the midst of those who quar- 
relled for a place at His side, who hung 
upon His every word, now leave Him to 
tread the w^ine press alone; and yet He, 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT, 10/ 

our Master, our Saviour, our Friend for 
nearly two thousand years, is wounded 
daily and hourly by our denials, by our 
flight from the cross, our betrayals; we de- 
liver Him up to His enemies *' for thirty 
pieces of silver," we dare not acknowledge 
Him if our little world derides. Ah, let 
us resolve this Lent that, God helping us, 
we will follow Him bravely, steadfastly, loy- 
ally, not with gloomy brows or sad and 
unwilling service, but gladly and thankfully, 
that when we meet Him, as we shall one 
day, it may not be with a traitor's averted 
face, or a false friend's fear, but with a holy 
confidence and *' perfect love which casteth 
out fear." 



I08 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



TUESDAY. 

Whosoever is ashamed of Me and My Words, of 
him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when He 
Cometh in the glory of His Father, — St. Mark 
viii. 38. 

'T'HERE is appalling force and solemnity 
in this declaration of our Lord, and it is 
repeated thrice in the Holy Gospels with but 
the slightest variation. Christ and His words 
are inseparable, for He who in the beginning 
was with God and was God has no practical 
existence on earth apart from His words. 
They illustrate His love and His glory ; they 
teach His will; they guide us on our path to 
Heaven ; and when we bring contempt, doubt, 
or disparagement upon them, we are wound- 
ing and shaming Him. True it is that we 
are permitted to deal with the absent Saviour 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 109 

as our hearts incline. We may walk at His 
side or forsake Him, we may honor Him or be 
ashamed of Him, — He would seem to be in 
our power. Silence attends the act by which 
He is denied. No thunderbolt falls when He 
is scorned and blasphemed. Nature still 
smiles on sinners as on saints, and like men 
who have nothing to fear, thousands repeat 
their denial of Him from day to day and 
year to year; but let no man take courage 
from delay. The conclusion of the text ends 
this and opens another scene, when presump- 
tion, ingratitude, and folly, as acts of dis- 
loyalty to Him will then be shown to be, 
must meet a just retribution at the hands 
of Him who will come, not in great humility 
as He has come to us again and again, 
not as He came forth from Jerusalem bend- 
ing under His cross, but '* in the glory 
of His Father,'' — Christ as God, as Judge ; 



no A^FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

and His ^^ words which shall not pass away " 
will be there to confront those who have 
heard them and read them through a life- 
time of opportunity. Ah, before that dread 
hour of unavailing regret and bitter remorse 
comes to any one of us let us, instead of 
being ashamed of Him or of His words, 
as the world tempts us to be day after 
day, answer proudly and loyally to His 
pleading question, "Will ye also go away? '' 
*^Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the 
words of eternal life, and we believe and 
are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God." 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. HI 



WEDNESDAY. 

He led them with a cloud. — Psalm Ixxviii. 14. 
There was a cloud that overshadowed them and a 
voice came out of the cloud, — St. Matthew ix. 7. 

Al/E enter the house of God day after day 
during this sacred season, at least the 
most thoughtful of us, occupied with ques- 
tions which each morning's news-sheet — each 
morning's experience in our own little circle — 
bring before our eyes and minds, and which 
no one of us can answer. The course of the 
world is unsettled. The agitations of society 
are such as to excite not merely interest but 
apprehension. The restlessness and lawless- 
ness of men burst suddenly forth like vol- 
canic fires, and at times there would seem to 
be no limit to the audacity of human motives 



112 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

and acts. But even in the Sanctuary and 
Divine Presence we seem no nearer the 
solution of these questions than we were 
before. 

The voice which comes out of the cloud 
above, the mercy seat, is perfectly clear and 
distinct upon every point connected with 
our spiritual life, our duties, our proper ob- 
jects of pursuit, our true happiness, our 
everlasting home, but broken and indistinct 
upon all matters which the Lord our God 
has not found it wise or necessary to reveal. 
He has kept something for belief without 
sight, something to accomplish and perfect in 
His own way. What do we know of God 
himself? We feel that He is our Creator, 
our Father, our Friend ; but when we try to 
conceive the mode of His existence we touch 
a mystery which baffles the mightiest human 
intellect. What do we know of each other ? 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 1 13 

The origin and mechanism of body and mind 
are shrouded in mystery, and science fails to 
penetrate beyond a certain surface point, — 
the cloud is reached very soon, and no power 
of man may pierce it. One other depart- 
ment there is in which the cloud of mystery 
is even more impenetrable, and to which I 
have referred, wherein God's dealings seem 
utterly "past finding out;'' I mean in the 
Providential orderings of the world. To 
enter this sphere without a living, loving, 
submissive faith is to enter a labyrinth, and 
lose our way in its windings and hidden 
paths of contradiction and perplexity ; but if 
with this faith we listen for the voice from 
the cloud, the voice of the well-beloved Son, 
we shall learn that concealment is part of the 
law of love, and that a Christ- like spirit is the 
only key to divine mysteries. This makes 
all men equal in the true sense, makes mys- 



114 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

tery but a synonym for wisdom, and compels 
our poor, weak human doubts to find relief 
and rest in submission to Him ** who is a 
very present help in time of trouble,'* and 
brings sunshine through every cloud. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT II5 



THURSDAY. 

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. — Ephe- 

SIANS iv. 30. 

TTHIS earnest appeal comes to us when 
our minds, having been guided into the 
right path of thought and feeHng, are '' let 
and hindered in running the race set be- 
fore them" by unexpected and irresistible 
temptations to do evil. We offer up our 
morning prayer before the day's battle be- 
gins, and the very consciousness that this 
has been done leads many of us to wear 
our armor of self-control too loosely, as we 
step out into the world, where Satan meets 
us almost before we have crossed the thres- 
hold, discovers the vulnerable part exposed, 
and his first assault breaks the resolution 
we had made upon our knees an hour or 



Il6 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

two before. We resolved not to speak a 
hasty word, not to be led into falsehood, 
not to yield to this or that besetting sin, 
but when we turn our faces homeward at 
evening it is with the consciousness of be- 
ing soiled by the touch of guilt through 
the avenues of thought, of act, of speech, 
of imagination, of desire. And this is the 
history of every day, — the struggle with bil- 
lows that roll back upon us, with natural 
enemies that return to buffet us is never 
over ; and it is because this is the case that 
I would urge every baffled, weary soul to 
resort to Him whose word is pledged to 
help us in each hour of discouragement. 
If we sin, as we all do, then we shall con- 
tinue in sin unless we confess it and plead 
for strength, more strength to conquer it, 
imploring divine aid though we fall and fall 
again, even when the retrospect of one day 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 11/ 

is painful and humiliating. Grieve not the 
Holy Spirit of God by deepening sin into 
sullenness, but as the greatest and noblest 
of God's children have done through cen- 
turies of temptation, simply repeat, at the 
close as at the beginning of each day, the 
prayer of the erring but repentant King of 
Israel, " Make me a clean heart, O God, 
and renew a right spirit within me.*' 



Il8 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



FRIDAY. 

Except I shall see in His hands the print of the 
nails, I will not believe. — St. John xx. 25. 

He staggered not at the promise of God through 
unbelief but was strong in faith, — Romans iv. 20. 

T^HERE are those who *' believe all the 
articles of the Christian faith '' as Abra- 
ham believed in God, — unquestioningly, im- 
plicitly; they require no miracles, they 
need no sign, and though the ** oracle be 
sealed " they waver not. These, however, 
are the few ; for, alas, it is hard for the stub- 
born mind of man to realize that until and 
"except he becomes like a little child he can- 
not enter into the kingdom of heaven;*' and 
he therefore dismisses the religious fact 
or custom or requirement which does not 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT II9 

appeal at once to his reason, with the state- 
ment of Saint Thomas, " I will not believe." 

There is perhaps no incident in the life of 
Christ more grand in its simple dignity than 
when he gives to the doubting disciple who 
uttered the above words the proofs of his 
resurrection, and receives in return the 
adoring confession '' My Lord, My God," — 
a cry not only of conviction, but of anguish 
at the dishonor his doubt had put upon his 
Master; and there is no period in the 
churches year when this cry of conviction 
should more fervently arise from the hearts 
of all men than at this time, when Christ 
not only claims our belief, but proves His 
right to it even as He did to Thomas. It 
is true, indeed, that the objects upon which 
faith would fix our thoughts are invisible 
and spiritual and unheard; but why should 
we not bring into our religious life that 



I20 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

which we accord to our home and secular 
experiences? Faith, even like that of Abra- 
ham, is a perpetual fact in the life of 
every one. We do not exist one waking 
moment without reposing our confidence, 
our trust, our belief, in things as invisible 
as any doctrine God requires us to believe. 
We trust our senses, we trust the order of 
nature; indeed, when we come to examine 
the subject, our whole being is a reliance 
upon authorities unseen and unknown, — the 
whole course of human action is based 
upon faith. All statements pertaining to the 
past, to history and ancestry, must be cer- 
tified by others; to us they are matters of 
faith, not sight, and yet we rely upon them 
as facts. So is it with the present. We have 
only a slight knowledge of the great forces 
we use every day; and if, in regard to the 
past and present, our faith is called into 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT I2I 

daily, hourly action, and no man says, **I 
will not believe," how can we withhold 
from Him who gives us constant rewards 
for this faith in His Providence our faith 
in Himself? If we receive the witness of 
men, the witness of God is greater, the wit- 
ness of His Son, who says to every trust- 
ing, faithful child of His love, " Blessed 
are they who have not seen and yet have 
beheved." 



122 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



SATURDAY. 

Able to do exceeding abundantly^ above all that 
we ask or think. — Ephesians iii. 20. 

PVERY period of life or time illustrates 
this truth either in the history of man 
or nations; but, simply to take your own 
individual experience, look back twenty, 
forty, sixty years, and remember that through 
them all your Heavenly Father has supplied 
your days with sustenance and nights with 
repose; or as you recall every bed of sick- 
ness from which He has raised you or those 
dear to you, every hour of health and hap- 
piness vouchsafed you, every sorrow or mis- 
fortune He has given you strength to meet, 
and bear, — yes, in your little career of life, 
the records of infancy, youth, riper years, 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 123 

and age form a volume full of proofs of 
what He has been able to do as your pro- 
vider, protector, defender, and comforter; 
and if He has been able, may He not still 
be trusted, to give a wise, safe answer to 
every prayer you lift to Him, since He is 
able to do not only *^ exceeding abundantly " 
but ** above all that we ask or think " ? 



^unJjap mxt before €a^ter. 

And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. — 
St, Luke xxii. 6i. 

1V|0 syllable was spoken, and yet the lan- 
guage of that look conveyed a rebuke 
to the heart of the faithless disciple more 
cutting and severe than was ever pronounced 
by mortal lips. The Evangelist, in the few 
impressive words of the text, develops a 
power universally felt, universally acknowl- 
edged, and yet one which is hardly recog- 
nized as among the gentle, spiritual influ- 
ences which sway the mind of man; we 
mean the innate and voiceless power of 
innocence and uprightness over wanton in- 
jury and ingratitude. That meek endurance 
which utters its wrong only by a deprecat- 



126 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

ing glance has a power to plant compunc- 
tion where the bitter words of self-vindica- 
tion or righteous indignation would only 
kindle abuse. To a mind uncontaminated 
by the world's hardening influence and nat- 
urally endowed with quick and generous 
sensibilities this silent power is great and 
oftentimes controlling. We have all wit- 
nessed it in a tender-hearted child who has 
thoughtlessly grieved a parent's heart, and 
who finds a severer punishment in a look of 
sorrow than in a harsh rebuke ; while again 
and again the pleading of a mother's eye 
will touch the conscience and melt the heart 
of an erring son when a multitude of words 
would plead in vain. And so in all the re- 
lations of life, if our hearts are not utterly 
blunted we meet with no sterner upbraiding 
for the wrongs we may have committed 
than the wounded heart entrusts to the eye. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



127 



It was the Master's look of grieved surprise 
and reproach which made the weak and 
cowardly disciple the courageous martyr he 
became, and it is Christ's pity for our weak- 
ness, and forbearance with our faults, which 
more than any other influence draws us to 
His side. He who as God " remembereth 
that we are but dust,*' who as man was 
tempted like as we are, now as our Great 
High Priest intercedes for us at the right 
hand of the Majesty on high. 



128 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 



MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK. 

Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled. — 
St. Matthew xxvi. ^^, 

TJAVE you ever tried to live through 
those last hours of our dear Lord's 
preceding the crucifixion, as if His experi- 
ences were your own? If so, even with 
your mere human perception, you have 
been able to realize in part what He must 
have endured of utter disappointment in 
those who should have been true to Him 
at such a time. His touching, comforting 
words of farewell as the twelve gathered 
around Him at the last supper might have 
been supposed to arouse their deepest and 
most tender love and sympathy for their 
Master and Lord ; but as He tells them of 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 129 

the place He will prepare for them in His 
Father's kingdom, Philip first interrupts 
Him with the abrupt demand, *' Lord, show 
us the Father, and it sufficeth us," followed 
by the gentle response, '* Hast thou not 
known Me, Philip? He who hath seen Me 
hath seen the Father." Then there is a 
strife among them who should be greatest, 
displaying that selfish love for power and 
place which so quickly quenches all other 
love. Remember, too, that the Master knew 
that Judas, who sat near Him at the table, 
had already sold Him to the Jews, that 
Peter, who so vehemently declared his will- 
ingness to go with Him to prison and to 
death, would deny Him, and that all the dis- 
ciples would forsake Him ; and yet through 
it all He loved them and forgave them. And 
when we read of the heroism, the fortitude, 
the devotion to their crucified Master which 
9 



130 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

in after years was shown by many of these 
same disciples we may believe that what 
was in erring man then, is still to be found, 
beneath fault and failure and sin, — a 
germ of good, which when linked to an 
honest repentance like Saint Peter's is enough 
to win from the all-merciful Redeemer of 
sinful man renewed opportunity for service, 
forgiveness for the sin, and a blessing upon 
every earnest effort to undo the past. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 131 



TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK. 

Rise and pray ^ lest ye enter into temptation.-- 
St. Luke xxii. 46. 

'T'HESE words of warning were spoken 
to the disciples by their Divine Mas- 
ter just before the series of assaults upon 
their faith and loyalty took place in the 
garden, and at the cross; and we shall fail 
as did they in our duty and true devo- 
tion to our Master unless we remember 
that it is not enough to pray upon our 
knees or at stated intervals for deliver- 
ance from temptation, for it is when we 
rise and grapple with the heart foes face 
to face that the prayer " Lord help me '' 
must go up to Him whose warning voice 
we thus obey. It will be perhaps after de- 



132 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

vout and heart-felt prayer on some morn- 
ing during this Holy Week that we shall 
find Custom greeting us before we reach 
the church door, and with imperious voice 
she will demand our surrender to some 
mandate she has prepared for Christian and 
worldling alike, and her iron hand will lead 
us to conform to her dictates despite the 
protest of conscience, unless we have risen 
from prayer '^ endued with power from on 
high/' " It is our custom " was the argu- 
ment that brought Pontius Pilate to the 
fatal act which has made his name a 
synonym for despicable weakness and cow- 
ardice through the centuries. '* It is our 
custom'' is the argument which will test 
our loyalty to Christ perhaps more than 
any other during these solemn days. Why, 
then, may we not as Christians meet this 
argument with one exactly similar, and when 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 133 

confronted by the world's standard, say 
firmly, *Mt is our custom to resist what 
you demand, to sacrifice what you enjoy/' 
Not that this need or should be said in the 
self-righteous, ''better- than- thou" spirit, which 
merely exasperates others, and denotes any- 
thing but a Christlike tendency in the heart, 
but simply as we would claim our right 
to abide by sacred or pecuhar observances 
belonging to our home, our family, or 
our country. No one of us would admit 
the power or right of any man or woman 
to dictate to us an especial form of 
^household government because it might be 
his or her custom to observe it; and though 
social tact as well as Christian courtesy 
would prevent an open expression of re- 
sentment as we listened to the suggestion, 
yet we should doubtless continue to ob- 
serve our own custom and be loyal to 



134 ^ ^'-^^ THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

our own standard; and have we not a far 
greater right to abide by the custom en- 
joined by '' our most holy faith " ? We need 
not meet the world with gloomy brows or 
refuse all fellowship with it, neither need 
we be of it, but calmly and steadily we 
may and must hold on our way by our 
Saviour's side as soldiers bound to de- 
fend and protect our divine Leader from 
the sneers, the assaults, or the " customs '* 
which assail Him to-day as they did in the 
judgment-hall. 



A FEW TB OUGHTS FOR LENT. 135 



WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK. 

He took water, and washed his hands before the 
multitude, saying, I afn innocent of the blood of this 
just person: see ye to it. — St. Matthew xxvii. 24. 

T^HIS act and assertion of one who bore 
a part in the great drama of the cru- 
cifixion illustrates a view of personal re- 
sponsibility in connection with permitted 
wrong which we should do well to ponder 
as it comes before us among the lessons 
taught us during this season. Pontius Pi- 
late, the governor who had dehyered up the 
*'just person/* in whom he found no fault, 
to the hands of those who would crucify 
him, — when the deed is consummated, when 
he has stifled every sacred principle and 
condemned an unoffending man to death, — 



136 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

tries to erase the marks of guilt upon his 
soul by the figurative Oriental act of pour- 
ing water upon his hands, as if this outward 
cleansing would wash out his sin. His bet- 
ter feelings were all with justice, as you 
have seen in the Scripture narrative, but 
when the deafening shout arose, ** Crucify 
him, crucify him!" though anxious to avoid 
the wrong, he dared not do the right; and 
while searching for expedients and endeavor- 
ing to shift the responsibility he was led 
step by step to a point where there was 
no alternative but surrender; and this is the 
tendency and ultimate necessity of every 
man whose guiding principles of right are 
lightly held. If when w^hat a man knows 
to be his better nature summons him to a 
plain act of duty he pauses .to reconcile 
each conflicting interest, to satisfy God and 
mammon, believe me, perplexity, mischief, 



' A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 1 37 

and guilt will follow hard upon each other's 
footsteps. ** Duty lies in a straight line/' 
and those who try to follow it through de- 
vious ways and hypocritical pretences fall, 
and leave behind them an ignominious rec- 
ord. Pilate, too, forgot one great eternal 
truth. He forgot that prompt and righteous 
exercise of power, however seemingly unwise 
or unpopular, always brings a man honor 
in the end. He desired the plaudits of the 
people and had his reward, though it was not 
the one for which he sinned; for "the mad- 
ness of the people '' had scarcely passed 
away when the favorite of the judgment- 
hall became odious to them. In abandon- 
ing principle he had gained contempt, and 
that very people who had urged him to stifle 
conscience, turned upon him in vengeance 
and demanded his removal. He was shunned 
at home and abroad, and driven at length 



138 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

into exile, where in his desolation and wretch- 
edness he hanged himself. Such was the 
end of Pontius Pilate; but ere we condemn 
him let us reflect that, though it be easy to 
say, ''I am innocent,'' though we may wash 
our hands before the multitude, and try to 
shift the responsibility of personal guilt upon 
him, — in the court of memory, at the bar 
of conscience, do we not stand condemned 
of sin and cowardice like his? Who of us 
can say '' I am guiltless, I have not de- 
livered up my Saviour, I have not cruci- 
fied Him''? Wash our hands as we may, 
is not His blood upon many of us? Ah, 
let us leave the guilty governor of Judea 
in the hands of the Saviour he condemned 
to death, while with contrite hearts we lift 
up the prayer of the publican, '' God be 
merciful to mcy a sinner." 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 1 39 

MAUNDAY-THURSDAY. 

A new commandinent I give unto you that ye 
love one another as I have loved you. — St. John 
xiii. 34. 

Do this in remernbrance of me. — St. Luke xxii. 19. 

T^HE spirit above all others which we are 
to imitate and cultivate during this 
Holy Week, and especially on this anniver- 
sary of > the institution of the Lord's Sup- 
per, is the spirit of love ; and in giving the 
double command to love and to remember 
to the little band of disciples as they gath- 
ered around Him in the upper room for the 
last time, the dear Lord showed his knowl- 
edge of the power of memory, not only to 
recall words and incidents, but to renew 
tenderness and devotion ; for although He 
knew also that those who sat beside Him 
at the table were to leave Him to desertion, 



I40 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

betrayal, and death, — as, alas, his disciples 
have done since then until to-day, and will 
do beyond to-day, — nevertheless He left to 
them and to us this new commandment, 
and added to the command to love the 
significant words ** as I have loved you,'' 
knowing that after He had left them the 
conscience of each disciple would furnish 
the gauge of what that love had been, — that 
Saint Peter would remember the gentle look 
of reproach after his denial; that Saint 
Thomas would remember his Master's' pa- 
tience, and PhiHp his forbearance ; that each 
and all would remember the never faltering 
love with which He had loved them to the 
end, and remembering would be led to love 
each other in the same spirit, in spite of 
faults discovered or injuries received, in 
spite of everything. And this is the les- 
son we are to learn to-day, one in which 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 141 

no difficult question of doctrine or belief is 
involved, but simply the inculcation of that 
divine and blessed principle of love which 
alone can redeem the world. And it is 
because this is so that the pastor who 
hears the frequent excuse '* I am not good 
enough to come to the Holy Communion'* 
might well reply, ''Not good enough to be 
grateful, not good enough to do in remem- 
brance of your Saviour this simple act 
which betokens your allegiance to one who 
died for you?" While to one who pleads 
as an excuse for failing in this outward 
expression of remembrance the fact that 
he cannot honestly claim to be in 'Move 
and charity with his neighbor " who has 
wronged or injured him, and that an ap- 
proach to the holy table would be hypocrisy, 
the response should be that a sense of 
wrong grows deeper apart from the re- 



142 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

membance of all that the dear Lord bore 
at the hands of ** wicked and cruel men," 
and even from His friends. You ask for- 
giveness every day of your Father in Heaven ; 
grant it to your offending brother, blot out 
all minor differences of opinion and feeling, 
all the discords which must arise in spite 
of the best intentions, and come to this 
feast of love and faith with your family, as 
you keep sacredly together some cherished 
anniversary associated with one who may 
have gone from your midst. Young and 
old alike should hold this communion with 
their Saviour for the '^strengthening and 
refreshing of their souls/' 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 1 4.3 



GOOD FRIDAY. 

And there they crucified Him, — St. Luke xxiii. 33. 

If any man will come after Me, let him deny 
himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 
St. Luke ix. 23. 

nPHE crucifixion and suffering of Jesus 
Christ need no interpreter to-day. We 
cannot heighten the solemnity of the scene 
or diminish its awful meaning. The pas- 
sion of our Lord has been kept before 
us throughout the week; evangelists have 
preached, eye-witnesses have described, the 
appalling spectacle. But while we listen and 
gaze in sorrow as we follow the Saviour 
to his cross to-day, let us remember that 
it is not as spectators or listeners merely 
that we are to regard our dear Lord's suffer- 
ing. No ! no ! each one is to take away 



144 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 

from the Mount of Calvary, as from a 
mount of vision, a newer, clearer view of 
life and death, as they were there ennobled, 
purified, glorified by Christ. There are 
those who are afraid of the cross as a 
symbol, who disapprove of it as a distinc- 
tive sign of belief, and who fail to realize 
its power as a source of inspiration, even 
though they recognize it as a proof of Di- 
vine love; and therefore it is that the ob- 
servance of this day, and of the season of 
Lent just past, are among the most wise 
and helpful provisions of the Church to 
which we belong. We need — once a year 
at least — not only to realize, but to dwell 
upon, the true dignity, the power, the 
grandeur of the cross of Christ. No day 
passes without bringing to each one of us 
a cross in the earthly sense, represented 
by some sorrow or disappointment; and 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 1 45 

our human nature would become warped, 
embittered, and utterly discouraged by this 
constant necessity for cross-bearing, had 
not Christ, as at this time, shown us "by 
His cross and passion, by His precious 
death and burial, by His glorious resur- 
rection," the true meaning of our daily 
crosses, the fiill and final interpretation of 
His love for us ; for He not only ** bore 
our sins in His body on the tree,*' He not 
only redeemed us there from the power 
of sin and death, but He left us an ex- 
ample that we might follow. " If any man 
will come after me,'' says the Saviour of 
the world, — come after me on the path 
leading through suffering and sacrifice to 
victory, rest, and peace, — let him take up 
his cross daily, not bear it as a burden, 
but take it up as a man raises the flag of 
his country, proudly and firmly, as some- 
10 



146 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

thing to bear for love and honor's sake, 
— never surrendering it at the world's 
demand, but weaving its spirit of faith 
and courage into the texture of his daily 
life. 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT 1 47 



EASTER EVEN. 

He being dead yet speaketh. — Hebrews xi. 4, 

Let not your heart be troubled: , , , I go to pre- 
pare a place for you, — St. John xiv. i, 2. 

TF there were nothing beside the fourteenth 
chapter of the Gospel of Saint John 
for the Christian to depend upon as a basis 
of hope and faith and cheering expecta- 
tion it would be enough; for it is more 
than all the suggestions of reason or the 
impulses of affection could possibly fur- 
nish. Take the writings of good men and 
wise men since the world began, and you 
could not frame from the whole mass a 
foundation to be compared with this. Plato, 
Epicurus, Socrates, and a host beside have 
told men not to be troubled, not to be 



148 A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. 

afraid, but they could not impart their cour- 
age, philosophy, or stoicism to others, or give 
a reason for fearlessness to the weak and 
doubting soul. It was merely one child of 
a day cheering another child of a day with 
speculations and sophistries, without revela- 
tion, without reality ; but Christ spoke as 
*' man never yet spake." He alone could 
say: "Because I live, ye shall live also;" 
therefore be not afraid. He was God. He 
came from God. He is God, and when He 
offers peace God offers it. He was made 
flesh that we might share His spirit. He 
took our nature that He might know our 
temptations, and when He wept at the 
grave of Lazarus His tears showed Divine 
sympathy with all human sorrow. This 
thought, this belief it is which draws the 
loving and the sorrowing together on this 
Easter Even. Would that this sacred eve- 



A FEW THOUGHTS FOR LENT. l^g 

ning hour might each year in every place of 
worship be set apart for a memorial service, 
combining the memiory of our Saviour, as 
He lay resting in the garden before the 
resurrection morning, with the memory of 
those we have loved, and love, who have 
entered into the rest of Paradise. Nothing 
can more surely bring the heart *' acquainted 
with grief" (and what heart is not?) to 
a full realization of all that Christ's sym- 
pathy meant than the healing power which 
goes out from this Easter Even in the 
words which ''He being dead yet speaketh/' 
*' Let not your heart be troubled, neither 
let it be afraid. I go to prepare a place 
for you, that where I am, there ye may 
be also/' 



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